Senior center Chris Daniels made the
most of his first season of play in the Southland Conference as he
has been voted Player of the Year in men's basketball as voted by
the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Daniels has the
opportunity to return as a 5th year senior after earning back his
year of eligibility by meeting NCAA percent of degree
requirements.
Daniels, a 7-foot, 265-pound product
of
San Antonio's Sam Houston High School, and A&M-Corpus Christi
joined the Southland last summer and walked away with the
regular-season title with a 14-2 conference mark. It went to the
wire as the Islanders had to win on the road at Sam Houston State
in the final regular-season game. An 85-68 win gave them a one-game
margin over SHSU, which finished 13-3 in league play.
Daniels has helped A&M-Corpus
Christi to a 23-6 overall record and wins in 17 of their last 19
and 19 of their last 22 by averaging 15.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and
1.6 blocks. He shot 59.0 percent (175-295) from the floor to rank
fifth in the league. A third-year player at his school, Daniels was
voted SLC Player of the Week twice during the season.
The San Antonio native holds the
school record for block shots in a career with 115 and needs just
two more blocks to tie the single-season record of 49 set during
the 2004-05 season.
After leading Texas A&M-Corpus
Christi to its third-straight 20 win season, Ronnie Arrow was voted
Coach of the Year. Having the best year of his eight-year career in
charge of the Islanders, Arrow has now won 63 games over the last
three years with just 22 defeats. He now leads A&M-Corpus
Christi into the postseason as the No. 1 seed at the SLC
Tournament, hoping to become the sixth straight SLC regular-season
champion or co-champion to win the postseason classic.
Josh Washington, a senior from
Lubbock, Texas, joins Daniels on the All-SLC first team, making
A&M-Corpus Christi the only squad with two-first team
selections. Washington heads into the postseason ranked 12th in the
SLC with 13.0 ppg. He leads the league with 46.8 (81-173) percent
on 3-point attempts, ranking him second in three's made.
This season he
broke the school record for three-point baskets made in a game with
eight on regional television against Texas-Arlington and set the
single-season record for three's made in a season with 81.
